Angela Merkel’s run atop Europe’s most productive nation, Germany, may be about to come to an end. Martin Schulz, the former president of the European Union, is closing ground fast in German polls which are furiously sampling public opinion in the run-up to Germany’s federal elections in the Fall. Schultz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) rose five points in just one week. Merkel’s CDU party is still ahead at 32.5%, with the SPD closing fast at 26%. Last week, the SPD had only 21%. The difference may well be caused by Merkel’s criticism of Donald Trump’s new immigration policies last week. Visit our website at http://www.billstill.com Considered by informed insiders’ as the ultimate resource for surviving economic or financial collapse/crash and attaining the unvarnished truth about the latest US and world news, current events in Washington, and today’s United States political climate. Please Like, Comment & Share. Good morning, I’m still reporting on Merkel Slumps in German Polls, Re-election in Doubt Bill Still is a former newspaper editor and publisher. He has written for USA Today, The Saturday Evening Post, the Los Angeles Times Syndicate, OMNI magazine, and has also produced the syndicated radio program, Health News. He has written 22 books and two documentary videos and is the host of his wildly popular daily YouTube Channel the “Still Report”, the quintessential report on the economy and Washington. Connect with Bill Still: https://www.youtube.com/user/bstill3 https://plus.google.com/u/0/+BillStill http://billstills.blogspot.in/ https://twitter.com/billstill https://www.facebook.com/BillStillOfficial https://www.pinterest.com/billstills/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/billstill http://billstills.tumblr.com/ https://billstills.wordpress.com/ https://www.diigo.com/profile/billstill https://www.reddit.com/user/billstills/ http://www.stumbleupon.com/stumbler/billstillss Consider becoming a cherished sponsor: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=3204630 https://youtu.be/pEexPoaexjQ

Tiny URL of photo of bed: http://tinyurl.com/stillreport-Houston Yesterday about 1 pm, we posted a story that was based off a Fox News story that President Obama might be able to singlehandly appoint a replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia because both the House and Senate are in recess for the President’s Day holiday today. Although it is true that both houses of Congress are adjourned until next week, what the Fox piece missed - and I failed to catch - was that the U.S. Constitution is very specific in regards to how long a recess appointment may endure: Article 2, Section 2 “The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.” Supreme Court judges are appointed for life. So yes, he could appoint a temporary Supreme Court justice, however there would be several downsides to this. 1. Senator Orin Hatch said yesterday that the Senate has tools to prevent this. 2. The other 8 justices on the Supreme Court may simply reject a new temporary member; and 3. This would be seen as merely another Obama power grab and bring on reams of negative publicity raiding down on his languishing administration that would certainly spill over onto Democrats in general. Bottom line; it’s NOT going to happen, so I took the story down. Since there is now controversy over the way Judge Scalia died, the removal of the previous video had to be explained. What is the controversy? According to the Houston Chronicle in a story written by John MacCormack and updated at 2:40 pm yesterday, Feb. 14th, the resort owner, John Poindexter, knocked on Judge Scalia’s door at 8:30 am when he did not appear for breakfast. When Scalia did not answer the door, Poindexter assumed he was still asleep. Three hours later, Poindexter returned after an outing and, finding that the judge had still not appeared, entered his room: “We discovered the judge in bed, a pillow over his head. His bedclothes were unwrinkled,” said Poindexter. Poindexter said the body was cold and the judge had no pulse. He called a local doctor and concluded resuscitation would have been futile. According to the newspaper report: “He then contacted federal authorities, at first encountering a series of answering services because he was calling on a weekend.” Scalia’s death has subsequently been attributed to “natural causes”, specifically a heart attack. However, the death will forever be shrouded in mystery because who - in the midst of a heart attack - would decide: “Oh, my chest hurts. What I need is to put a pillow over my nose and mouth to restrict my ability to breath.” [insert CBS photo] It’s such a silly assumption that even the CBS News report on the death posted at 22:58 last night highlighted in red that an: “autopsy was not necessary.” Well, it certainly IS necessary to determine whether the judge died of asphyxiation or a heart attack. Until that is done by a panel of recognized forensic pathologists, murder conspiracy theories will continue to circulate – and for legitimate reasons. In addition, there are some great pictures on the Houston Chronicle site, which I will not display on this story because the photos have now been bought by Getty Images and Getty is very hard line about copyright infringement. So I will post them in my next report. The most interesting one is an actual picture of the bed and the pillows in the room taken just hours after the Judge’s body was removed to be flown home to Virginia. I’m still reporting from Washington on this very sad President’s Day, Monday, February 15. Good day.